Generally, treatments of Paul’s speech note biblical parallels to Paul’s wording but find no further significance to these biblical allusions. This study argues that Luke intends far more through this use of the Scriptures of Israel beyond merely providing sources for Paul’s language. I contend that, through the narrative technique of "framing in discourse", Luke uses the Scriptures of Israel to lead his audience to interpret Paul’s speech as standing in continuity with anti-idol polemic of Israel’s prophets in the past. As such, read as historiography, Luke’s narrative uses this continuity to legitimate Paul’s message and by implication, the faith of Luke’s audience. Luke’s use of the Scriptures here is ecclesiological.

206 Kenneth D. Litwak
(Isa 2,18; cf Isa 10,11; 31,7). Reflecting the same ideas as we have
already seen in Isaiah 40â€“48 (19), Isaiah predicts that Moabâ€™s idols (ta;
ceiropoivhta aujth'") will not help her (Isa 16,12). Similar statements
are made for Egypt (Isa 19,1) and Babylon (Isa 21,9). Isaiah mocks
those who build and worship idols, i.e., things made with or by hand,
epoihsan ceiropoivhta (Isa 46,6). Daniel also uses this term for idols
j v
(cf. Dan 5,4; 5,23; 6,28). In almost every use of this term in the
Scriptures of Israel, the term ceiropoivhto" that literally means
â€œsomething made with hands or by handâ€ is used metaphorically for
idols. Since there are temples for the gods, but the true God does not,
indeed cannot, dwell in a hand-made temple, and the true God cannot
be represented by an idol (ceiropoivhto"), the Athenians worship God
ignorantly. No one familiar with the Scriptures of Israel would miss
echoes of these common scriptural themes and Lukeâ€™s audience would
surely have heard these scriptural echoes regarding items built with
the hands, all of which are inappropriate or insufficient for God.
c) God is the Giver, not the Recipient: Acts 17,25
Paul continues to echo scriptural traditions in Acts 17,25. God has
need of nothing but has in fact given to all creatures life and breath
and all things. Paulâ€™s wording, didou;" pa'si zwh;n kai; pnoh;n kai; ta;
panta, is similar to that of Isa 42,5, didou;" pnoh;n tw/' law/' tw/' ejpâˆ† aujth'"
v
kai; pneu'ma toi'" patou'sin aujthvn. Ps 50,7-13, which states that if God
wanted something, he would take it himself and needs nothing from
any human parallels conceptually Paulâ€™s statement that God is neither
served by men nor needs anything from them. The creation account in
Genesis states that God gave the breath of life to the first human (Gen
2,7), and that forms part of the echoed tradition in Paulâ€™s speech. Acts
17,24-25 thus echoes scriptural motifs throughout, even though they
may be presented in a manner that is accessible to Paulâ€™s Gentile
audience (20).
d) God is Sovereign over Humans: Acts 17,26
Continuing intertextual echoes of Scripture, Paul asserts in Acts
17,26 that God has made from one human all humans, and placed them
on the earth. God has established time periods and boundaries for
people. Paulâ€™s statement echoes the thought of Genesis 2,7-8, which
(19) Most uses of ceiropoihvto" appear in Isaiah, and in each instance in Isaiah
the word refers to idols. See PAO, New Isaianic Exodus, 195.
(20) See further J. JERVELL, Die Apostelgeschichte (GÃ¶ttingen 1998) 447.